Isotope effect reveals non-cooperative water dynamics in salt solutions

Water molecules surrounding ions behave in a much less cooperative way than they do in bulk water. This follows from a study on the isotope-dependent dielectric response of salt solutions, which has just been published in Physical Review Letters by researchers from the Amsterdam research institutes HIMS and AMOLF. Their results lead to an update of Nobel-laureate Onsager's 40-year old theory for the response of salt solutions to electric fields, and enables a reliable determination of hydration ...